


will the owner of the biggest secret please stand up?

by weatheredlaw



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, secretly married shhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-14
Updated: 2012-09-14
Packaged: 2017-11-14 05:54:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eames doesn't know if they're, like, together, but it's starting to bother him less and less; or: five times Arthur and Ariadne might have been probably married, and the one time they were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	will the owner of the biggest secret please stand up?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [metonymy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/metonymy/gifts).



> i haven't written an inception fic in so long. so here. <3

**01.** _flirts_

The problem is Ariadne flirts with everyone. It's like a chronic, unstoppable disorder she has -- she can't keep her eyelash-batting to herself, not for five freaking seconds. It's almost _hypnotic_ , the way she manages to stop anyone she needs, right in their tracks. Women, men, doesn't even matter -- Ariadne knows how to flatter and flirt. 

Eames is always her most willing victim. He's a horrid narcissist, even on his best days, and he wallows like a pig in shit when Ariadne gets her hands in his hair and coos over her him, like he's the goddamn bee's knees. It's one of the reasons he can't really connect the dots -- Ariadne is a heinous flirt, and she does it with everyone except for Arthur.

It's not like he doesn't know they got chummy in Arthur's level. Or that they shared a cab to some fancy-ass hotel in downtown LA the night after the Fischer job. Eames knows this because it's pretty much his _job_ to know this. But after that, anything between Arthur and Ariadne sort of...drops off the grid. It's been two years and he can't prove anything beyond a casual post-job hookup and a stolen kiss. Eames has proven far more salacious things with less evidence than _that._

But Eames is going crazy. Ariadne flirts with _Cobb_ \-- albeit awkwardly and sadly -- and _Yusuf_ (which is sort of gross to watch because Yusuf is _just_ as bad). But never Arthur.

Not that there isn't something there. You could have your eyes gouged out and see that there's something between Arthur and Ariadne -- it's like this raw, natural spark that makes Eames flinch whenever they're near one another. Whenever Arthur will say something gentle to her, something encouraging, something sharp and harsh, critique her work and praise her genius -- Ariadne sinks into it, almost like a caress, and smiles from under her hair and flushes. 

Ariadne doesn't flirt with Arthur. Arthur flirts with her.

 

 

 **02.** _sex_

So Yusuf walks in on them banging.

Yeah. He knows. _Oops._

Not that it isn't beautiful, in its own way --

(and who is Yusuf kidding, watching Arthur and Ariadne fuck, no fucking _make love_ is like watching the curves meet on a graph and touch and draw away and touch again, perfect numbers making perfect arcs and perfect lines and gasps and sighs and moans)

but Yusuf knows he's not supposed to see it.

He watches, because he's a surveyor of fine love making and thinks it would be a waste, really, if he didn't stay for just a minute. He can't really see much of anything to write home about in the first place -- it's more auditory, the sound of skin on skin and Arthur saying wicked, filthy things and Ariadne, veritable fountain profanities. He's only there a moment, just long enough to make excuses for, before he steals away. 

And he thinks he's done it. He thinks he's proven it, completely and totally and absolutely, without a doubt: Arthur and Ariadne are now the worst kept secret.

But in the morning, he goes in to work, and it's just...the same. Silence and sniping and snarking. Arthur treats Ariadne the same way he treats everyone else, if not with a little bit more finesse. But Ariadne ruffles Eames's hair, smacks Yusuf's ass, and gets right to work. Like nothing fucking (pun absolutely, totally, completely, wholeheartedly intended) happened.

Someday, he thinks, they're going to prove it.

For now, he avoids Ariadne's workstation. The corner of it, anyway.

 

 

 **03.** _pickles_

Okay so Arthur has always been a nice guy. Not, like, the most cheerful. The most charitable. Nothing like a saint or anything close to angelic. But he has, in general, always been a great guy. 

Maybe he buys lunch for Ariadne every day out of the goodness of his heart, but Eames doesn't really _think_ that's the case. 

And, again, he's at that point where he can't _prove_ it, which is frustrating because he's been trying so hard to prove _something._ And "you buy her lunch every day" is so pathetic and so trivial that he _knows_ it'll just come back to bite him in the ass.

It's just that Arthur _knows_ exactly what she wants, and it's the way he gives it to her, hands her a bag from the deli down the street with a smile, his Ariadne smile. The one that's just for her. Because Eames noticed that, too, a long time ago. Arthur's always treated Ariadne special, always thought more of her than others. 

"A pickle?" she asks one day, and Arthur laughs, takes it from her. "Yech."

"Got them mixed up, sorry."

And he _looks_ like he's going to kiss her forehead, brush the hair form her face and smile so warmly, so endearingly -- but he doesn't. He takes the pickle and _winks_ at her and Eames just gives up, he fucking _gives up_ on trying to figure these two out because what the actual hell anymore? 

 

 

 **04.** _fight_

When they fight, everyone knows.

It's always over something stupid, Eames suspects. But they come in and they're already fuming. Ariadne throws her work onto a table in a far corner of wherever they're staying and ignores everyone. Arthur passive aggressively doesn't get her lunch, doesn't smile or speak to her. They wage _war_ on one another when they're angry, and Eames feels the ground tremble under his feet when Ariadne finally _snaps_ and storms off and Arthur leaves not long after her, the painful tension in the room so thick.

"She's _incorrigible_ ," he'll say, or something like that. "She doesn't _listen_ ," he'll say on other days. "She takes too many risks. She's too dangerous. She's a loaded gun and we don't have _room_ for that."

And Ariadne will snipe back, if they let it escalate enough for blows. She will _fight_ and Arthur pales when she does. 

"When _you_ can't control me, you get like this and I've told you every single time that you _can't._ I know what I'm doing, so stop _acting_ like I don't. I'm not a child, Arthur."

"Well maybe you should stop _acting_ like one."

And that's it. She's done. She's _gone._ She grabs her things and storms from the building, sick of everyone, sick of Arthur. Eames feels _bad_ for him, when he looks over and sees the way Arthur's face has fallen. It's a sad look, a lost look. The look of a man defeated. 

"I should..."

"Go," Cobb says, gesturing to the door. "Make it right."

Arthur grabs his jacket and heads out the door. In the morning, they come in and everything seems right with the world again. Arthur buys her lunch. Ariadne teases Eames about his haircut. And Eames feels a little better about not knowing a God damn thing.

 

 

 **05.** _awake_

Sometimes, in dreams, no one hears you scream.

Sometimes, in dreams, no one can touch you. 

The first person Ariadne reaches for is Arthur. She checks his vitals, puts together her bag, and disappears. Eames is always next. Arthur always last. Later, sometimes weeks later, they regroup.

Arthur goes to Ariadne first, and he clutches her like he thought he might never see her again. 

"Let's get drunk," Eames suggests, and when they all stumble out of the bar a few hours later, waiting for Cobb to come get them, it doesn't feel like it should be different. Yusuf has old, old songs sung in rich Arabic from his father's days that he belts from the backseat of the car. Cobb looks so much like he wants to be disappointed. But he can't. Ariadne leans her head on Arthur's shoulder and hums along, because she's been stealing Yusuf's iPod when he isn't looking.

And Eames is still content to know nothing. He wants to. He wants _desperately_ to. 

But it's okay, for right now. It's okay the way it is.

 

 

 **00.** _married_

So Arthur and Ariadne are married.

This is a far step up from _dating_ , which was what Eames was trying to prove.

But he'll settle for married.

"When? _When?_ " he demands, and Ariadne explains the year after the Fischer job, running into Arthur all over Europe. 

Falling in love with Arthur, all over Europe.

Marrying Arthur, a year after the Fischer job, in Sicily. 

She shows him her ring, strung on a chain around her neck. Tells him why it was so secret, why they were so afraid to tell anyone for the first year. 

Because, the thing is, Ariadne's pregnant.

"Wasn't supposed to happen," she says quietly, and Eames knows what she means. "Might not happen still. Arthur doesn't know."

"You should tell him, love."

"Should, should, _should._ I should have done _a lot_ of things." She sighs and leans against Eames. "You can gloat now. Tell him you know about us."

"Nah. I'll let you do that." He kisses her temple. "You're the one with all the truths to tell." Ariadne nods, letting him hold her a minute longer before she gets up to go home. Home to the truth. Home to Arthur.


End file.
